| January 2003 Newsletter |
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29 States and DC Completed
City Of Trees Marathon - Boise, Idaho
On October 31 my son Matthew and I took off for Boise, Idaho so I could run the City of Trees Marathon and also tour some of the state. We were greeted with record setting cold temperatures in the teens for the area. Race day was supposed to be 55 degrees but did not come close to this. We went out for a run on Friday morning and we had jackets, gloves and tights on. Matt ran for a couple of miles and I continued on to look over the city and ran up the Capitol Steps, which was about three blocks from our hotel. Boise is a beautiful city and truly a City of Trees and they all had on their beautiful fall foliage.
Saturday we drove to the mountains and tried to go off-road to the Deadwood Lookout but the snow, ice and 1000 foot drop on the mountain on my side of the car prevented us from reaching the top in our rented Cavalier. We retreated and continued on our tour and stopped for lunch in the Cowboy Town of Idaho City at Calamity Jane's, which was an interesting experience in itself but the food was good.
On Saturday we took the tour of the race course on the trolley and also learned about the history of the city. I was very disappointed to learn the marathon course had been changed. They were going to take us all around the city but due to lack of volunteers the Boise Police decided the night before they could not provide adequate traffic control for the runners. So in the end the marathoners had to run the half marathon course twice which was much more spectator friendly for the families. On Saturday evening we went to the pre-race pasta dinner. The speaker for the evening was John Bingham who writes the Chronicles for Runners World magazine. He had everyone, including my son, laughing from the time he started speaking till the end of his speech. After his talk I have a new way of looking at races. Running in a race, as John Bingham stated, is a celebration of all your training and everyone along the way is helping you celebrate by clapping and cheering you on.
Sunday came and it was still very cold. The temperature was 22 degrees to start and was supposed to go to 40 for the finish. This was the first time I had every worn tights in all the marathons I have run and a long sleeve cool Max T-shirt, jacket, head band and gloves. It was actually very dangerous in the beginning at the water stops because the water would freeze as runners threw away their cups of partially filled water. I saw many runners slip and slide and almost fall so I decided to walk carefully through the water stops the first time around. The first few stops had ice in the water also. Every street was lined with beautifully colored tress and you could see mountains in the background. The race director told us they had a spectacular view for us along Crescent Rim Ave. and she was right. You could look over the whole City of Boise and see the capital and trees and the mountains that surround the city. The course was flat except for the bridge over the Idaho River. The first time around was slower than I had expected and my son was there and as I had decide I had warmed up enough to give him my jacket I told him things were going very slowly and to expect me in about 5 hours. For some reason my second time around went better and my finishing time was a surprising time of 4:25:45. My son was watching the marathon from our balcony on the second floor, which overlooked the finished line. He was so surprised to seem me coming and raced down the stairs to take of picture of me crossing the finish line. This placed me first in my age group because the actual first place female was first in the masters race, and they did not duplicate awards. So I was thrilled with the award.
That evening we went out with my friends from the Albany area that are also doing the fifty states and are only a few states away from completing their goal. We all had a wonderful time in the City of Trees.
This was a first time marathon for the race director who is not a runner herself. She did a great job and stated this will be the one and only time the marathoners will run the half marathon twice.
Next month it is off to the Tucson Marathon in Arizona. Happy Running!
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